Pushing for the Impossible
by pongun
Summary: Beast Boy is in for the fight of his life - an exploration of Garfield's full potential if the situation demanded he put his big boy pants on and give it all he's got. Even if he succeeds, the results could be disastrous. *Rated M for potentially very disturbing content once the action heats up.
1. The Greatest Threat

The viewscreen didn't lie, and the ultra-long range sensors were reading a positive. Looking away from the monitor, Robin's visage was grim even by his standards. His gaze traveled steadily over his teammates, his jaw set and his fists clenched with an angst he usually kept concealed. "The Justice League can't help us on this one, Titans. We're going to have to fight him on our own."

"Think we could just tell him we've got a nasty after-taste," Cyborg quipped sardonically, stoically hiding the fear that hung thickly in the air with his massive metal arms crossed. "Maybe build a giant sign sayin' the buffet's closed."

"Nice try, Cyborg," Robin comforted as jovially as he could muster, "but we're gonna need something with a lot more firepower than a sign.." Rolling his eyes, Robin continued,"He'd probably just eat that, too. Raven, could your teleportation or reality-altering powers be of any use?"

Taking a moment of deep breath and contemplation, the empath calmly replied, "There's no way I could teleport the entire human population to safety in time. That would literally take years, assuming it didn't kill me in the attempt." Raven considered aloud, concentration carving her features. "And my powers couldn't repel him or mask the entire planet," she sighed, serene and dejected at once. "I feel about as useless as Beast Boy."

Ignoring the barb and pondering for a moment, half-hunched on the couch with his brow deeply furrowed, Beast Boy muttered, "I have an idea, but it's pretty nuts."

Raven raised an eyebrow and muttered, "This should be interesting." Cyborg cracked a smile, the first among the superheroic friends for several minutes. "What you thinkin', Grass Stain? Maybe rig up a mic and tell awful jokes until he gets sick to his stomach and goes away?"

Beast Boy stood unfazed, letting the comments roll like water from a duck's back - which he could have easily illustrated if the situation had been more relaxed. This wasn't the time to get mad. Turning his gaze to the orange-skinned alien, "Star, how well do you know Tamaranian fauna?"

Breaking from an expression of what looked to be nothing short of terror, Starfire turned to her green friend. "My knowledge of animal life on my planet is vast, friend Beast Boy. It is, how do you say, complete from A to Zurmborff." A typically adroit but fish-out-of-water reply. After a moment, "Why do you ask? All the creatures of Tamaran assembled together would have little chance against... Galactus." The tremble in her voice at the name of the World-Eater was slight, but as easy to discern as its underlying feeling was to share.

Beast Boy stood up, looking somehow taller than his diminutive stature and without the usual irony or dopey grin. The expression in his eyes seemed to have deepened, as if Gar's understandable fear at having his world threatened was battling another emotion inside of him. "Cyborg, can you rig up a virtual reality interface that can connect directly with Star's mind? I need to sample a few Tamaranian creatures, particularly ones that can fly through space at above-light speeds." Cyborg nodded, "'Course, Green Bean. Nothin' to it. But what, you think you're gonna fight him off with some kinda Tamaranian nightmare creature or somethin'?"

Shaking his head, Beast Boy looked first at his best friend, then at his leader. "No, but I'll need to be able to fly through space. I can't just turn into a fish and swim around up there like I can in the ocean."

Robin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I still don't follow your plan. I've read about a lot of worlds, and nothing short of Krypton would even have a prayer of there being an animal that could fight at that level. And that's a non-starter for obvious reasons."

"That's where you're overlooking things, dude. Can you bring up any of the Justice League's files on the Green Lantern Corps? I remember reading about a living planet called Mogo. If what I remember was right, he was able to fight off Galactus when the World-Eater was a little hungry."

Robin looked at Beast Boy as if the green teen had just turned into a lamp again. "Gar, are you seriously considering morphing into an entire planet?" Incredulity was written all over the Titans' faces. "Can you even do that," Cyborg queried. "Is that not a dangerous undertaking for you," Starfire asked, concern etched deeply into her features.

"Where did you learn about Mogo fighting Galactus," Robin inquired, skeptical about Beast Boy's studiousness... and the general lack thereof. "I read it in a comic book," Beast Boy replied proudly, flashing that million-dollar grin of his. "Well," he faltered slightly, "It was a forum debate. But, like, a little over half the people on there said Mogo could win."

"Possibly," Robin stated contemplatively. "But he has a power ring. And you don't." Beast Boy refused to be deflated by technicalities like a lack of access to one of the universe's most powerful weapons. Nonetheless, the implications were terrifying on a few levels.

"I think..." Beast Boy started and swallowed, glancing over and allowing Raven time to make a snarky remark to get it out of her system. When none came, he continued, "I think Mogo's body is based on a group of single-celled animals, like a school of amoebas. Just like a massive number of 'em." "That's a colony," Cyborg pointed out, feeling silly immediately after the words left his mouth. Beast Boy shrugged.

"Well, I tell you guys what," he started, his eyes no longer harboring any noticeable fear. "It might not work. But my backup plan was ordering a bunch of pizzas and watching all 19 of the 'Nightmare of Chainsaws' series." Beast Boy strolled around briefly, gesturing with his finger in the air like a professor,"... including the Christmas Special that was only released in Norway and that I had to get bootleg." Robin tilted his head - while bootlegging wasn't the kind of crime the Titans dealt with, the Boy Wonder didn't approve of the team members doing anything that would make them bad role models. Beast Boy continued to pontificate, "...over and over again in the last great film festival on earth." Slight nods from the other Titans - the latter plan was a lot more in line with Beast Boy's personality.

"But ya know what," he continued with a rhetorical flourish. "I don't wanna die. And there's a chance that pushing myself this hard might make that happen. But I'll take a chance of that over a guarantee any day. But I can't do it alone."

"Great speech, Mr. President," Cyborg muttered, rolling his eyes. Leave it to BB to get a little too into what he's talking about.

"I stand corrected. Maybe I'm the useless one in this case," Raven observed. "You're totally not, Rae," Beast Boy corrected. "I need your help to see how much I can take." "What do you mean," she questioned. "While Cy's working on configuring the interface so I can see the creatures in Starfire's mind, I'm gonna need you to help me get in shape for space." "You want me as a training partner," asked the empath, obviously perplexed and slightly annoyed at the perceived condescension. "Not in the regular way," the green Titan answered, seeming more afraid of what he was about to say than of having his world consumed.

"I'm gonna need you to use your powers... and... crush me until I pass out. Over and over again. Until I can take the hard vacuum of space. And I'll probably need you to heal me up the first few times, 'cause it's liable to hurt like hell." He resisted the urge to say it would hurt 'like a bitch,' because that would just give a person like Raven the kind of ideas that would lead to bruising.

Instantly, Raven's expression transformed from looking jilted out of making a useful contribution to the team effort. A look of greater joy than her teammates had ever seen on any Raven besides her Happy emotion's face bloomed. The cambion seemed to be barely repressing an almost diabolical grin. "I am so in," she deadpanned more quickly than Beast Boy was comfortable with.

Beast Boy turned slightly away from Raven to address the entire group. "So, Robin can get me all the info on Mogo so I can figure out what to morph into, Cy will be on that VR thingie, Star can brainstorm some of the fastest-flying critters from Tamaran," the green boy gulped. " And Raven will get to live out her childhood dream of kicking my ass over and over and over." He didn't want to see Raven's expression.

Beast Boy turned to Robin. "You're in charge, Robin, but I think my plan's got a chance. At the very least, I can stall that monster until more help arrives." If they could only stall for a day or two, that might be enough time to call a few heavier-hitting members of the Justice League. Robin took a moment to contemplate, finally nodding his approval. Everyone had something useful to do.

"Titans! GO!"


	2. Training Begins

Beast Boy had made a badass boast, and the first price he had to pay was dealing with Raven's power without the benefit of her being angry. Despite what one would think, she was actually more dangerous when her frame of mind was cool and neutral. While she would naturally deny having overtly sadistic qualities, as Beast Boy hit the ground following the squeeze of Raven's literally all-consuming dark power he would beg to differ on that. Or perhaps he'd just beg in general.

"That was better," she deadpanned, walking over to ensure that he was conscious. "That was more than the level of pressure I'd use to pick up a car. Possibly an SUV." He panted in response, prone and doing his best not to whimper. In his mind, Gar kept up the mantra of, 'Man up, the world depends on you.' This was the part of heroism that the historians didn't put in the comics - but it was the part that mattered the most. "Let me know when you're ready for another round." Her eyes glinted slightly as she continued, "I can keep this up all day." Beast Boy wasn't a fan of how she stretched out the syllable of 'all.' But like Robin and Mento had both said in their individual ways, there's no use being gentle in practice - the enemy sure as hell wouldn't be when the shit got real.

Beast Boy had a moment to ponder the fact that other than height and powers, the main difference between the two joyless leaders was that Mento had no qualms against swearing, where Robin was a little more clean cut and didn't get into things like profanity. Beast Boy fought back the urge to chuckle as he considered how Rob and Star must sound when they had sex, with the Boy Wonder keeping his language clean throughout.

"Gimme a minute, Rae," the green Titan breathed, blood dripping from his mouth and nose. "I feel like I'm gonna..." with a quick morph, he became a frog, literally croaking to finish his sentence. While being able to become all manner of creatures was certainly a powerful skill to have in a fight, Beast Boy could go as many rounds as just about anybody because of the de facto healing factor that morphs provided. While he'd only regenerated a tail once as a lizard after an embarrassingly close call with a forklift - which we don't talk about, the shape shifter was confident he could regenerate entire limbs or even internal organs provided he weren't too wounded to morph.

During quiet and contemplative moments, the changeling would sometimes wonder at how aware his teammates really were given their intellectual abilities.

Robin was so highly disciplined and bright that he'd graduated high school at 13 and had the Ivy League begging for his admittance as if he were a professional athlete - which he basically was, whether Yale and Princeton knew it or not.

Cyborg's brain was part quantum computer, meaning he could process at speeds that roughly matched the Flash's cognition - to say nothing of photographic memory and a sort of perpetual Internet access that would've given Control Freak a foot of nerd wood. Gar wasn't sure if quantum computers had the ability to know everything or not, but Cy seemed to have the combos memorized for games that hadn't even been released yet - and he usually seemed bored during movies, as if he knew how they were going to end even when he couldn't have possibly seen them before. A more thoughtful person could get scared of things like that.

Raven spoke at least half a dozen languages, and those were the ones Beast Boy had actually heard of. She'd probably read more books than the rest of the team put together, which was no small feat given Robin's constant research. She'd been able to out-magic that dragon Malchior, who Beast Boy owed an ass whooping if he ever got the chance for hurting... a friend as good as Raven. Feels? What feels?

Starfire's education had undoubtedly been the most robust of the group. Between having literally been raised to inherit the absolute rulership of an entire planet and her cross-cultural experience on earth, she was already an intellectual giant. This wasn't even talking about natural gifts, such as her super-fast mental faculties that let her fly faster-than-light and avoid smacking into things. And the experiments those jerk-off aliens had done to her... Gar knew that in his female friends' honor he owed at least a few entities a 50 gallon drum of whoop-ass that he'd be happy to pay in full. He loved his friends with all his heart - all three hearts when he was an octopus - and respected them to no end. As the child of a pair of Nobel laureate exobiologist geneticists, he still often felt like the intellectual dullard of the group.

And yet, not one of these people had ever put 2 and 2 together that Raven could toss Beast Boy out a 20-story window into the ocean, which would literally kill most people and would wind most meta humans, without causing him noticeable injury. She would never know how many times he'd hit the water screaming, his spine twisted unnaturally in his frantic mid-air turn to avoid landing on his head and being knocked out. At the same time, every inch of his skin felt like it was on fire from smacking the water at terminal velocity when he couldn't morph quickly enough to slow his descent. He'd just walk back inside awhile later with a soaked uniform and a contrite look, and no one ever thought anything about it.

Having a healing factor could be... blessed with suck, as the trope folks might say. But Beast Boy wasn't one to bemoan his life.

Beast Boy would rather have pieces ripped out of him on a constant basis 'like that Greek guy who pissed off the gods' than admit to Raven that she could quite possibly get away with impaling him... over and over again. Considering what her powers could really do, like that time she was in denial about being scared during Wicked Scary, put chills through Gar's spine. Morphing back to human form and standing up with less damage than he might incur cutting himself while shaving, Beast Boy nodded and stood with clenched fists and a stoic brow. "Thank you, ma'am," he intoned like a soldier awaiting orders, "May I have another?"

Uttering her magic words, Raven concentrated on the green titan and he was surrounded with black energy. While her maximum psychokinetic lift had never been conclusively measured, Raven could certainly put some compression on a guy when she felt like it. Beast Boy's muscles tightened, anticipating the full force of the dark energy as it closed in like a too-tight outfit. If outfits were suddenly made out of concrete, rebar and needles that stabbed into every sensitive place. His chest didn't mind at first, as his bones and muscles fought the urge to expel air. The green teen's testicles, on the other hand, contracted fiercely beneath the weight of Raven's crushing energy. Bile rose in his stomach as Gar felt like his was being racked by a mule.

Fighting through the pressure, Gar tensed with everything he had and pushed with all his might. Deciding to finally morph, his cells began to realign as his muscles expanded into a rhinocerus. His skin toughened and his size changed, somehow overcoming the energy that should have restrained him like a small room. Gar made a mental note - Raven's energy apparently couldn't stop him from morphing into a larger creature like solid matter could.

Pushing outward with everything he had, the Gar-rhino focused on winning. To beat Galactus, he would have to beat the vacuum of space. To fight an entire universe that threatened to pull him apart at the cellular level, a little pressurized energy from a goth had to become nothing. Beast Boy pushed, willing himself to not only withstand what Raven dished out, but break it. To break her...

Beast Boy's animal instincts were generally good and balanced. Most animals, when not hungry or under threat, were generally peaceful and willing to let other creatures alone. But when an animal came under threat or faced competition from a rival, there could be no holding back. Gar unleashed these instincts, deciding to morph into something unusual. Wondering how much matter Raven could restrain and if she could hold the same level of force across a larger space without verbalizing those thoughts, Gar pushing outward, his cells expanding in what could only be a multiverse-bending exchange of mass with some other universe. Filling out into a giant with limbs the size of trees and weight measured with dozens of tons, Beast Boy assumed the form of the ultrasaurus he'd once seen illustrated in a book.

Raven's focus had to shift to accommodate the changing size and shape of the green titan she held at bay. Normally, her powers would have immobilized him by now. She noted that with his dramatically larger size and different form, she had to curve her powers differently to exact the same compressive forces. This was proving more difficult than she'd anticipated. Sweat stood shining on her furrowed brow and her stance began to wobble slightly.

Beast Boy wasn't having a good time of it. While his enlarged lungs had drawn in air from the mysterious source he gained all his additional mass from, the strain of maintaining the different form and the decreased density of the dinosaur form's size was taking a serious toll. It was taking every ounce of effort he could squeeze out to maintain - and with his perspiration under the literal pressure, the sweat stung as Raven's power actually pushing it back into Beast Boy's pores. This gave him an idea that was, frankly, a little disgusting. But Gar was never one to let grossness stand in his way, so he surrendered to the pressure and pulled himself inward - taking all of the mass from his 40-ton dinosaur form and squeezing it into his native form.

For a teen that small to weigh that much, Beast Boy's density had to skyrocket. At this density, he could take Starfire's normally bone-crushing hugs without difficulty. The green teen's eyes, which had liquified agonizingly as the energy pulverized his eye sockets and blinded him prior to his recovery morphs, could suddenly see in spite of the energy. Beast Boy felt a renewed vigor and a level of energy he had never thought possible under this new modification to his form. Breathing in part of Raven's power with his now-Herculean disphragm, Beast Boy found a gap around his face and began to move his arms out of it.

The effect from the outside looked like the darkness was a black cloud that was giving birth to beast boy, squeezing him out with slime and viscous fluids spilling out around him like an over-flowing pool with a dog clawing its way out. Or when a teen pricks a giant pimple and pushes on the skin around it, squeezing out thick and oily pus. As Beast Boy took hold of the black energy and pushed against it with his hands, he allowed it to push his stomach and intestines inward. This had the effect of causing him to projectile vomit Raven's own power... right back at her.

With an epic slam against the wall of the training room, the cambion hit the ground with a thud and her power broke as she swam through semi-consciousness. Beast Boy stood triumphant, knowing that he had finally overcome her ability to really cause him damage - by being thick-headed and disgusting. A fellow's gotta be himself, as Gar would say.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Rae," he breathed, exertion catching up to him as the adrenaline began to wear off, "Even if you just squeezed me out, I'm not callin' you 'Mom.'" Try as he might, he couldn't stop laughing at his joke, particularly combined with watching Raven shake off the effects of her own power as she struggled to her feet. If Beast Boy had possessed a built-in camera like Cyborg does, he would've snapped a picture of Raven half-covered in his stomach bile. That would have mad for the best holiday cards ever.

"Talk about taking one for the team," she quipped, still in reasonable spirits despite 'losing' this round. "We're not going to talk about that last part. Ever." Her eyes took on a threatening shape and went red, her voice dropping an octave, and he felt himself begin to recoil. Then Beast Boy realized, in spite of himself, that he no longer felt that afraid of the gray titan. Her threat level was moderate, even if she was capable of incredible things. But that did give him an idea. "Rae," the green teen asked innocently as his face returned to neutral.

"What," she returned, obviously struggling not to let out anger. It should be noted that by this point only the reinforced emergency lights were on in the training room, as the standard bulbs had long exploded with Raven's exertions and moments of irritation when Beast Boy proved a greater challenge than he rightfully should have been.

Walking over to a nearby table and grabbing some towels, the shape shifter handed them to Raven as an implied peace offering. The poor girl looked like the aftermath of an especially brutal bukkake session. "I'm probably gonna regret asking this, but..." he set his jaw in case she lashed out - a reasonable precaution. "... would you be willing to share mental images of some demons with me, so I can spar against your demon side? I think it'd be a good way to cross-train and I don't know if Galactus would be expecting it."

"Not a chance," she answered without skipping a beat. She also skipped thanking him for the towels, although he didn't mind. Nobody would've expected a vomit-based attack like that. "That would involve sharing a mental link with you... letting you into my mind. The phrase 'no chance in hell' doesn't quite do it justice."

"So you'll think about it," he nodded, letting it go for now but completely no-selling her vehement denial. "I think I've had all the practice I can take for today." He tried to suppress a grin, but couldn't quite. "And I'm really hungry all of a sudden."

Raven lashed out with her powers, knocking Beast Boy back across the large gym. He landed nimbly on his feet, grinning still and dusting off his chest like a hammy kung fu movie actor. But then Gar's tone went back to serious and he walked over to Raven, giving her a hug. "Thank you for helping me like this, Rae," he whispered in her ear with absolutely zero irony. The empath blushed so red, her face looked freshly sun-burned. "You're welcome" was all she could say as the embrace ended.

Normally, Beast Boy would have never had the confidence to do something like that. His heart beat faster just being in the same room with Raven, and he would literally have let her crush him the rest of the day just for one her delicate, always hard-earned smiles. He'd long since given up denying that he had feelings for her. If only she'd returned them...

But as it was, the imminent threat to the earth also made a difference. Who could be afraid of a crush when they could easily die when the World-Eater arrived? Beast Boy decided not to embarrass himself or her, though - maybe she knew about his feelings, maybe she didn't, but he wasn't going to say anything. He pulled away without letting another drop of his gushing emotions spill out. The poor girl had gotten enough bodily fluids poured on her for one day.

Walking out the door, he turned around to ask if she wanted to head out for some General Tsao's pizza - a dish the local pizza place had invented after they merged with the Chinese food place following that scandal involving missing dogs. Gar had even prepared an explanation that went along the lines of, 'because we just had a great training session.' But as he looked at where Raven had been standing mere moments before, and she was gone.

"This is no way to get a date," he muttered, feeling dejected and hoping he hadn't gone too far. Maybe he shouldn't have tried to beat her. It'd just felt so incredible... the power...

... wiping the smug look off of her face. Inside Beast Boy, a quiet struggle took place. Part of him wanted to hold her, and make love to her, and treat her like the queen she so richly deserved to be. His queen.

But another part wanted only to conquer. It wanted only to harm, to maim, to kill, to put the survivors in a panic that would keep them sleeping with one eye open. This was a part that wanted nothing more than to rend screams from his victims - to hear voices that would normally talk about everyday things begging for their lives. This was a part of Beast Boy that wanted to outdo Galactus, and Trigon - to be the face of fear throughout the universe. This part wanted to bathe in the screams of the dying. Perhaps even deeper than the Beast, this part was borne from the sickly coitus of a raptor's bloodlust and a shark's single-mindedness... shaken thoroughly with all the things that had happened in Gar's life.

Struggling to push down the darker side of himself, which seemed to grow stronger as he became more confident, Beast Boy tried to focus on the positive. His friends, the joy of nature, the kindness of most people. Easing away from the cruel impulses, he released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, and walked out of the training room.


	3. Into the Black

"Come on, Cy," the changeling grumbled as he stood in the dark room. While he wanted to think of this as a real-life holodeck from Star Trek, Beast Boy's mind kept going back to a story he'd read once about a guy in a robe getting swallowed by a whale. Not a single creature in Garfield's genomic stable enjoyed the concept of being eaten, and it was obvious just looking at the green teen. Forget Galactus, forget the world ending - standing in a warm, dark room alone was putting forth some stage five willies. He decided to try humor. "When's the movie gonna start, dude? I already finished my popcorn!"Wild gesticulations did little to mask the shape shifter's nervousness about being in a world totally under Cyborg's control... where nothing was going on for no obvious reason.

"Hang on, grass stain," the metallic titan responded, the considerable bulk of his torso inside an open panel obviously messing with wires and other tech-innards(TM). "I hadn't realized the neurological capacity of a Tamaranean - Starfire burned out half the circuits with sheer volume," Cyborg muttered into the comm, frustrated at the gap in his plan. "I finally just asked her for some of the toughest critters and sent her away, or we'd have been here forever."

Beast Boy continued to wait, not hearing the doors whoosh open behind Cy in the control room. Killing time in the interim, the green titan morphed into a random series of animals... a flamingo made all the more surreal by its jaunty green hue... a dolphin with wings based on a hummingbird, only far larger...

... a honey badger with giant fins, koala ears and spines all along its 20-foot-long tail...

"So you flooded the room with aerosol LSD," Raven inquired, noticing Beast Boy's series of trippy transformations. Cybord shook his head, then realized the futility of the gesture because his head was still inside the console. "Naw, the green bean's prob'ly just bored while I get this thing online. And..."

The lighted dials came to life like an award-winning holiday display set up to dazzle the crowd. "It's alive! Booyah!" Cyborg shouted, momentarily forgetting the relatively small size of the room he was in. Raven hid the pain from the sudden outburst beneath her usual outward stoicism. "Great job, Cyborg," she complimented dryly. These sounds reached Beast Boy's superior hearing, but he was lost in the game of rapi-morph he was playing. Getting his morphs to under half a second apiece, the green titan was pushing to do 150 in a minute, which demanded all of his concentration.

So when a creature that resembled a cross between a piranha and a blue whale with a mohawk and chin strap of spiny hairs appeared out of nowhere mere inches from his face, Beast Boy snapped back to human form with a shout of surprise. "Thanks for the warning, Cy," the changeling called with depleted breath, winded from his morphing exertions and calming down from his fear. "No prob, buddy," the metal man grinned in response, having a moment at his friend's expense.

Raven stood on dispassionately as Beast Boy took on the form of the first creature. Bones and skin metamorphosed in that unique, solid way that seemed to defy all sense - perhaps suited to the young titan's general mindset. Cyborg read out some stats, culminating with, "... and don't even ask me to pronounce this muthah's name - just know that it's really fast, can fly anywhere and bites with over 4 million PSI."

"Which is only useful if he actually shuts up," Raven quipped. "Good luck with that."

Emerging from the casing, Cyborg bumps his head on the panel, accidentally ripping it off its hinges. Glancing at it sheepishly, he shrugs and proceeds with his work. "Okay B, I can't pronounce this thing's real name, so let's just call it the bite-fish, okay? Looks like you got it. Ready for the next one?"

In the bite-fish form, Gar floated over toward the sound of his best friend's voice. "This'll be great for going through space, and ya never know when I might have to bite something," he began, "but let's do the cliff notes list and just move into something with great grappling power, something tiny and... if there's anything with energy-shooting powers, that'd be really useful."

"You want fries with that," came Cyborg's reply. "Let's just run through the list, and you can pick out what you need later on. Remember what Robin's always saying..."

"Yeah-yeah-yeah, 'you can't use a move you haven't learned and practiced.' I get it, Cy. It's just that time isn't really on our side - and I don't think ANYBODY could be a 16th degree black belt like he in as little time as we've got." Counter-point made, and the cybernetic titan had to concede it. "All right, but if the world ends up gettin' destroyed because we hurried through this, I will never let you hear the end of it."

"The end of the world has officially stolen your thunder," Raven observed wryly.

Across the Tower

Bathed in the study's reddish light only the obsessed can truly appreciate, Robin toiled away at the files to gain total access to Mogo's full workup. It required some digging, as well as all but begging Hal Jordan and J'on J'onzz to let the Boy Wonder to access their files in their absence, but it finally worked. "Now how to break this down so Beast Boy can absorb it easily," the masked titan wondered aloud. Briefly considering putting the information into a puppet show and posting a video of it to CatTube, Robin decided to break down the structure of the micro-creatures along with a magnified anatomy chart of one and a brief listing of their abilities.

"Robin to Cyborg, come in," the leader chimed into his communicator.

"Cyborg here."

"Transmitting a breakdown of Mogo's intra-symbiotic matrix now. Make sure Beast Boy gets a good look, and try not to make his head explode."

"Copy that. Received, will get it to the grass stain ASAP. And I won't try to explain intra-symbiosis, either. Cyborg out."

The metal man spoke into the intercom to make sure the changeling could hear him. "All right Gar, we just got your last new form of the day, and it's the most important. So pay attention."

"I gotcha, Cy. I'm doin' my best here - put it up, and let's see what I can do," the younger teen responded.

"Think he'll realize that going to full size will break the earth's orbit," Raven asked with eyebrow raised.

"I'm pretty sure he'll be limited to the dimensions of the room, so we should be safe for now," the metal man responded, his red eye flashing with binary code as he finalized the images into three dimensions and showed them to Beast Boy.

"Hey, assholes, I can hear you," came the shout from Beast Boy. "Next you'll be telling me about the inter-relationship between gravity and space-time and that I shouldn't mess with the past and create paradoxes when I go massive."

Both his teammates blinked at this insight from the normally flippant teen. They didn't even notice the door opening behind them with a soft whooshing sound, though Starfire's slow flight was naturally silent. Cyborg and Raven tensed slightly as Starfire broke in with, "Greetings, friends! How goes the morphozing of the meta? Have friend Beast Boy's skills improved?"

Cyborg nodded in satisfaction, watching the monitor as the changeling became an enlarged version of the micro-symbiotes, multiplying their numbers into a colony and looking like a "planet" the size of a small garage. "He's doin' pretty well overall, Star. He's been puttin' in the work today."

Starfire beamed, proud of her friend's accomplishment and experiencing the beginning of real hope that he could repel the threat at hand. Each of Beast Boy's friends were beginning to experience the feeling that he might just be able to pull this off. If someone had asked them two weeks prior, when the idea first came blurting out of the green teen's mouth, the answer would have been unanimously and unambiguously in the negative. But he was winning them over.

Most surprising to anyone, at least if it had come to light, was that Raven was beginning to deepen her respect for the changeling - and even to a level beyond mere respect for a teammate and friendship. While his style was still very flamboyant and he could still be annoying... throwing up on her being an especially bothersome example... there was something especially bold and even... Raven refused to use the word 'sexy,' most especially to describe the green teen. But watching Gar growing stronger and pushing his skills to their limits gave her a strange, not entirely unpleasant feeling in the pit of her stomach. The maturity he had begun displaying over the past months had, on the whole, made him a lot less annoying overall.

Training and preparations passed relatively uneventfully for a few weeks, the threat growing closer and looming deeper. Training often had to take a back seat to missions, as opportunistic criminals took advantage of citizen fears to try and carve anarchy into Jump City. Some citizen demonstrations even began to turn violent as an undercurrent of terror erupted into rage. Protestors with signs saying things like, "Thanks for breaking it, heroes," "Where's the justice for us?" and "How will we fight him, with rocks?" crowded the streets, clogging them and causing infrastructure to break down. Half the time, the titans found themselves performing crowd control of ordinary citizens more than fighting actual villains.

The tenor of the training sessions picked up in intensity as each hero realized they weren't just fighting for lives. This was a fight so that people could go back to really living.

"All right, you in position Starfire," Robin called from the T-ship, staying in a low geosynchonous orbit and watching the Tower below to observe. "In place and ready," the alien replied through electronically vocalized text message, being unable to speak into a communicator in space.

"Your sonic cannon warmed up and ready, Cyborg," the Boy Wonder asked of his teammate on the ground. "Completing final calibrations for low-dispersal orbital launch now, Rob," the metal man replied. "I'm still not sure why green bean doesn't just turn Tamaranean and fly up into space, though."

"You heard what Starfire told us," Robin rebuked his teammate. "Without enough solar radiation, that form won't be at full speed or strength. And he's going to need a lot of it to support the additional mass for reaching planetary size. We're talking 26 orders of magnitude here, Cy."

"Acknowledged," called the cybernetic titan. "I'm locked and loaded."

"You are free to launch at your discretion. Robin out." Turning to his ashen-skinned teammate, Robin confirmed, "You ready to provide support if needed, Raven?" The cambion focused and replied, "Ready. If he shows signs of distress or unconsciousness, abort test and get him on-board immediately for treatment." Her face was as calm and professional as always, but in the nearly five weeks since Beast Boy's plan had first come up she had begun to worry less and less about the overarching cost of failure, and more about Beast Boy.

Raven had developed a crush, and had been taking it out on the changeling in their training sessions. She'd been fighting harder during their sparring matches, which he was winning more often than she'd like to admit. But she couldn't fight her feelings, and she was more worried that the cute green boy would be hurt or killed than that earth could be consumed. In the back of her mind, a plan had even formed to transport the two of them - not like a couple, of course, as there was no telling if her feelings would be reciprocated - to another dimension or a neutral planet if this plan failed.

Robin noticed that the sorceress's concentration had seemed to drift, and came back with, "Raven, you all right?" Shaking herself back to the moment, she responded in the affirmative. "I'm just... visualizing a successful test that we can implement immediately." The Boy Wonder blinked, his BS detector on full alert. "Right. I'll buy that, Raven. And if you try to sell me a bridge, I'll buy that, too." The empath casually struck back with, "A fool and his money..." Robin decided to let the matter drop for the time being.

The signal came up that Cyborg was launching Beast Boy into orbit. The plan was that the green teen would reach the upper stratosphere in a microscopic form that could absorb the most radiation and be sent up from the surface in a tight formation, which the metal baller had naturally likened to going really, really long due to how he was essentially throwing his friend into the sky.

The viewscreen lit up with a small ball indicating the location of Beast Boy in microscopic form, rising rapidly through and out of the atmosphere. While not visible to the naked eye, Robin keyed his console and an enhanced view came up to show him and Raven the location of their green teammate. His trajectory was following its intended course, and everything looked good.

The next few minutes passed with quiet tension. There was no way to quantify the energy that Beast Boy was absorbing, and he was floating out of earth's gravity into deeper space. Finally, a shape began to emerge from the void, and it was the bright green that told the other titans that things were continuing to go as planned. Robin called, "Beast Boy, what's your status?" Moments later, the digital vocalization from the green teen's neural link replied, "A-Ok, Robin. I'm just going to go a few light minutes away from earth before I start getting huge. Otherwise there could be tidal waves and stuff. I don't think we need anything Biblical happening on earth right now." Replying in the affirmative and signing off, the two titans aboard ship watched at the bite-fish began moving rapidly away from earth's orbital path.

Seconds turned to minutes, and the tension became palpable inside the ship. The digital voice comm system chimed suddenly, "Starfire to T-ship. Beast Boy is in sight. Moving to provide off-hand support as needed." "Acknowledged, Star," Robin's voice replied. "Don't let him get in trouble out there." "Jeffrey that, Robin. Luckily, there is nothing for Beast Boy to ruin in the vacuum of space. Starfire out." Robin momentarily debated whether to inform his Tamaranean girlfriend that it was 'Roger' and not 'Jeffrey,' but thought better of it. He'd gotten the point.

More time passed, and Robin began to wonder if Beast Boy was goofing around out there. That would be par for the course. The Boy Wonder's thoughts stopped dead in their tracks when he saw a mass beginning to form in the distance. At first it appeared that a star had turned green, but then it became large enough to see clearly. By the time the green mass was as large as the moon, Robin called, "T-ship to Beast Boy. I have visual contact. What's your status?"

The reply came slowly enough that Robin's brow furrowed with growing concern. Even Raven's features contorted slightly with fear that would've been obvious if anyone had been looking at her. The comm chimed back, "I'm doing great, Rob. I feel... amazing..." The green teen trailed off, and Robin's eyes went wide as the mass Beast Boy had become started approaching. "Ya know what, Rob? I feel like fighting Galactus right now. You up to it," the changeling asked rhetorically as he passed by the T-ship at a slow but persistent clip. "Feel free to land on me if you want a ride. I really feel like I can support the team now." At least the humor hadn't changed.

Initially too shocked to respond, Robin called back sternly, "Negative, Beast Boy. We're going back to earth to review our testing results."

"Test results? Come on, Robin. The team's all in place, and I feel like... more than your, Star's and my combined net worth." The Dayton estate, the Wayne estate and the imperial Tamaranean treasury had a combined value of over 600 billion USD as of the date this conversation occurred. At six hundred thousand times greater than feeling like 'a million bucks,' this is the stuff that God complexes are made of. Beast Boy was going to fight Galactus whether Robin was on board or not.

Gritting his teeth, Robin issued an instruction for Starfire to follow the changeling at a safe distance and piloted the T-ship on a similar pursuit course.

Steadily accelerating, the space-faring titans were soon soaring quickly enough to greet the World-Eater just outside the outer edge of the solar system. Hours passed in silence, with Robin silently fuming that Beast Boy had defied orders. With additional support from Cyborg, the mission would have a higher likelihood of success. But it was hard to argue with a man who'd literally become a planet.

In time, mid-range sensors detected Galactus dead ahead, approaching at fair speed and seeming indifferent to the T-ship... though not to Beast Boy's planet-like form. The comm was silent, but the other titans caught the voice of Beast Boy in their minds, as clearly as if he were standing next to them: "Galactus, I know what you're trying to do and I won't let you do it. Go away, or we'll fight to the death."

Suddenly, the purple-armored god stopped in space. "You appear to be a planet, but your energy is not as they are. What is the creature that dares to threaten me?"

Beast Boy spoke with a confidence he rarely showed. Time for a badass boast. "I am Garfield Mark Logan of the Teen Titans. I am the representative of every life on earth, because they ALL flow through my veins. I am the craziest superhero earth's ever produced, and I believe the collective animal kingdom of my world is worth just as much as you are. I am anything I want to be, even an entire world when the time comes. I will be your escort out of this solar system and thank you for visiting, or I will be the boot jammed so far up your ass I'll be tap-dancing on your tonsils."

Robin sat back in the T-ship's cockpit, looking surprisingly proud. Every member of the Bat Family could appreciate a good pre-throwdown monologue. Raven seemed surprised at the profundity of Gar's statement, with one caveat. "He's seen Full Metal Jacket one too many times."

The Devourer replied, "Galactus does what Galactus must to survive. Your planet and its lives will sustain me toward my final, inexorable goal. I am the last survivor of a dead universe, and I shall see this one to its conclusion. Beginning with you."


	4. The Gamble

Beast Boy had little experience with foes who have psychic powers, and thus was unprepared for Galactus's opening strike. Feeling his entire being rattled from within, the green planetoid felt like he was inside the largest microwave ever constructed. Robin winced as the visible portion of the Devourer's attack blocked out everything but its own brightness, and Raven doubled over in her seat. For her, this was painful in a number of ways.

Obviously, her eyes worked as well as anyone's. The energy wave was blinding, almost on the order of watching an atomic bomb go off from near ground zero.

Secondly, her empathy let her feel all the pain the green changeling was experiencing at once. The agony was palpable - even Robin could tell that his friend had gone from a world of his own to a world of pain in a heartbeat.

The third and certainly worst reason Raven could barely stand what she was feeling was because of her emotional connection to the changeling. In this moment, she realized she couldn't hide or ignore her feelings anymore. Raven loved Gar, and not like a brother the way she did Robin or Cyborg. He was the man she wanted to be with, possibly forever - for teenagers, that concept is hard to understand. Watching him be brutalized by a level of power that only her demon side could vaguely comprehend was heart-rending.

The fact that she could do nothing to help made the situation even worse. She was forced to be little more than a spectator while her love...

... started laughing hysterically. "He's lost it," the empath found herself saying without thinking it first. Covering her mouth in case of further outbursts, Robin's brow was furrowed in concentration - there was suddenly no worry on the Boy Wonder's face or coming from him inside. While Raven trusted her leader with her life, she was still worried about her man. The fact that they weren't technically in a relationship was immaterial.

As was the fact that Gar had zero clue about Raven's feelings. In some ways, he really was that dumb. Inside Raven's mind, her emotions were blazing like Cheech and Chong - who were probably doing just that as the end of the world loomed.

Timid was lying in a fetal position with tears streaming down her face like small rivers, while Brave's eyes blazed with hatred and her fists clenched so hard they drew blood, enraged at being unable to join the fight in any meaningful way. Rage was rattling her cage with more vigor than ever before, begging to be released - and Raven had a notion that this could be a situation to let her out.

Happy was sitting comatose, mouth moving silently like a fish out of water as she tried, desperately to think of something positive from this situation. Maybe some day. Love was seated, watching breathlessly with her hands clasped in front of her heart and tears threatening to spill over, hoping Gar could find a way to get out of this unharmed. She didn't care about Galactus, or even about the world in general - just being with Gar now that Raven had accepted the truth. 'Better to have loved and lost' is fighting words when you're living it.

Beast Boy's laugh gave the World-Eater a moment of pause. Not only was it somewhat surprising that the changeling was barely harmed by the energy blast and accompanying psychic onslaught - in the countless eons of existence and millennia of devouring worlds, no one had ever been amused by such an attack.

To put this in perspective, Galactus's standard form is roughly 30 feet tall - certainly NBA-worthy, but not especially imposing compared to many creatures the changeling could become. The changeling had become a planet roughly the size of Earth - perhaps Venus. The math gets tricky when you start getting into twenty-some orders of magnitude above one's normal size and trillions of trillions of tons in mass. The point is, the size disparity was like an insect fighting a redwood tree.

The simile of the size difference wasn't lost on Beast Boy. He remembered how many insects could put trees on the ground before he could chuckle about it. Still, he laughed, and everyone was surprised. Pressing his advantage, the changeling blurted out, "Is that all you've got? You ain't so tough! You ain't so bad! My late momma used to hit harder than that. Hell, Nick Galtry used to hit harder than that."

Figuring this was going to go on his tomb stone and not really caring, the changeling continued as he advanced menacingly on Galactus, "Show me what you've REALLY got, you little bitch!" Keep in mind that all of this was being psychically projected, as Beast Boy worked to throw his thoughts out of his head in the knowledge that the others could hear him. The message was transmitted through the comm system, and when Robin heard the taunt he couldn't keep the smile off his face.

Robin had never been so proud of his teammate as he was in that moment. There's just nothing like trash talk, even if it was a bit crude.

Galactus was not impressed.

The next blast wiped the smile off of Robin's face, cringing in time with Beast Boy's shriek. The next five minutes were pretty much just Beast Boy making sounds that would drive an animal rights activist to pick up a gun and hunt the bastards who caused it. In the distance, Starfire was weaping at her friend's suffering, considering landing on Garfield's surface and begging him to retreat. Every creature inside Gar cried out at once as massive numbers of the symbiotes he'd split himself into were literally vaporized into space. Planet Beast Boy was steaming in the darkness, bits of himself being torn away by a level of energy that could've powered the entire earth for weeks.

"Yes..." Beast Boy breathed... as much as a planet in space can breathe. The effect sounded like the wheeze of someone who'd been running hill sprints, defiant despite all common sense saying not to be. "Come on, asshole. Give it to me like it's my first night in prison. You want some fresh fish? Take it, if you can!" At this, the green planet moved forward and literally knocked Galactus backward, hitting him with a tremendous amount of force. Even at 20% less than his original planet size, Beast Boy was still gargantuan by humanoid standards.

Nonplussed and growing upset, Galactus's thought thundered in everyone's mind, "I HUNGER!" Advancing on the green planet, the purple-clad fist struck the surface with enough force to send a shock wave moving over it like a baseball bat striking a water balloon. That wasn't a shiver - Beast Boy had to struggle to keep himself together at the cellular level. He was painfully aware of the similarities between this and sparring with Raven - only this was infinitely worse.

Time for a counter-attack.

Forming an army of flying warriors under his direct control, they charged in a 5-deep V formation straight at Galactus's face. Swatting them effortlessly to one side, the World-Eater didn't notice the nearly microscopic agent moving into his ear through the facial gap in the side of his helmet. Roughly the size of a mosquito, the Tamaranean insect had a limited lifespan in space and very little strength, but stealth was the order of the day here. Once inside a depression, the reconnaissance began as the agent expanded into something more sustainable.

The green world accelerated forward, once again ramming Galactus and pushing him backward several kilometers before he ceased the momentum.

The attack that followed consisted of multiple hits, and Gar had to struggle to keep pieces of himself from being rattled away. It was taking all of his willpower to maintain the form - well, half to maintain the form and half to stay conscious.

At this point, he had little choice but to invoke the final part of his plan. Gar chided himself for its stupidity and desperation, and these feelings weren't lost on Raven. Worry etched itself deeply into her features as she watched from the T-ship's cockpit. Even Robin seemed worried, as he was in no hurry to watch another family member die. Unfortunately, there was nothing anyone else could do about this.

On an especially knockout-worthy punch, all hope seemed lost as Beast Boy's entire planet form seemed to collapse... falling all around Galactus like a crumbling building. The other titans averted their eyes - nobody wants to watch their friend be broken.

They almost missed the spectacle as Beast Boy totally encased the Devourer, holding him loosely inside like bagged groceries. Bagged groceries? Yes, like a box of Sunny-Os with the prize hermetically sealed inside. The green planet began to move, further out of the solar system and gaining speed. "Beast Boy to all points," he sent through the comm system. "It's gonna take a long time to do this on my own. Can you guys gimme a push?"

Looking up, the astonishment on three superheroic faces was such that Beast Boy had already gotten up some speed before they recovered and began to act. Quickly getting behind her teammate and putting her back into it, Starfire added her considerable strength and flight speed to the effort while Robin worked to configure the T-ship's energy projection system to provide a push.

Between the team's efforts, they quickly reached faster-than-light speed. Inside, Galactus struggled and unleashed tremendous bursts of energy, and the team gritted their teeth in sympathy for their friend. At one point, the Devourer even used the Nullifier, actually destroying parts of Beast Boy that he had to reform to keep holding on to the armored god inside.

Time passed, with Starfire's stamina beginning to wane and Robin having to split shifts with Raven to keep the T-ship operating properly. Days went on, with each of Galactus's attacks seeming slightly less injurious to the green planetoid. As the creature within attempted to stir, the network of symbiotes the changeling had converted himself into shifted and bounced with him, like keeping a bird from taking off from your hand by moving with the energy of the jump and not allowing it to gain height. The effect was immensely draining - a classic rope-a-dope.

More time passed, with Robin's nascent teenage beard growing and the food reserves in the T-ship starting to deplete. It's a good thing Cyborg installed a restroom in there during the most recent round of upgrades...

As the edge of the universe neared, the stars seemed to thin out considerably. Only the chaotic mass of the Crunch loomed ahead. Planet Beast Boy's shape - what still remained of it - changed dramatically, moving Galactus almost outside himself and edging dangerously close to the lethal edge of the Crunch.

"Hey, Galactus," the green titan asked, fatigue heavy in his voice after the exhausting trip and unprecedented length of this morph.

"Speak, mortal," the god replied.

"I'm gonna make a deal with you," the teen began. "You're gonna leave earth alone, or I'm gonna throw us both out there, and neither one of us is gonna make it."

The other titans listened, enraptured and knowing this wasn't a bluff. He'd do it - they'd seen the intensity with which he'd prepared for this, and there was no doubt Beast Boy would give his life for the earth - even if Galactus is necessary to preserve the cosmic order.

"So what's it gonna be? Leave the earth alone and find another world, or forget about your 'inexorable goal' or whatever?" At this point, Gar was too tired to try and be witty. He just wanted this to end, one way or the other.


	5. A New Problem

For immortals, a human lifetime is barely a moment - Galactus could easily have won simply by waiting until Gar succumbed to fatigue or starved to death, let alone old age. But when Galactus was hungry, every moment became precious. "Very well, mortal. To accomplish my ultimate purpose, I shall leave the earth in peace. For now," he spoke cryptically, moving out of the opening Beast Boy had created for him.

Moving slowly away, presumably to meet with Taa II as it joined him in a distant part of the cosmos, Galactus proceeded on a course far away from the earth's solar system. The relief on the Titans' faces didn't need to be seen - without any special powers, one could feel this level of triumph and happiness that not one would they not have to watch their friend die, they'd get to keep the earth. "So, you guys want fries with that," the green titan joked weakly to break the tension. Morphing downward to a fraction of his former size, the bite-fish requested permission to enter the T-ship's airlock and was accepted in.

Robin wasn't happy with his teammate for disobeying orders... but under the circumstances, he couldn't give the green boy too much static. When Beast Boy walked up to Robin, looking exactly as tired as you'd think he'd be and covered in wounds with congealed blood, the reason wasn't immediately apparent. "Rob," he began, "I'm really sorry about not bein' a team player back there. I just... I saw my chance, and I took it," he continued, looking at Robin with genuine contrition in his eyes.

Presenting his hand to shake, Beast Boy offered, "I'm sorry. Not sorry we won, I mean. That was awesome. But, like, can ya forgive me on this one?"

Robin maintained a stern face and crossed his arms, letting his teammate stew in what he'd done for a moment. But ultimately, they shook on it and Robin smirked slightly. "Just don't let it happen again." Cue Beast Boy's signature grin and a nod - it undoubtedly would, but always for a good reason - and he began to slowly walk away. "Gar," the Boy Wonder called as his friend walked away. "You do realize that you're on kitchen-cleaning detail until further notice, right?" Nodding, the green titan replied, "Yeah. I'll get on that after my nap. It's been kind of a rough week - bet it's nasty." And the award for understatement of the year goes to...

Beast Boy slept the entire 4-day journey back to earth. Cyborg met the rest of his teammates roughly 1/3rd of the way home, bringing food that was greatly appreciated and medical supplies that Raven didn't need to help the green titan heal - and no one asked why she didn't leave his bedside for the duration.

Upon returning to earth, Beast Boy got groggily out of bed to find the gray-skinned titan meditating near him. She didn't initially notice his return to consciousness, and he was confused as to why she'd be nearby. "Rae," he questioned gently. Hearing her name, she unfolded her legs and floated back to standing on the deck. "I didn't think you could get any lazier," she started, her voice a monotone but a smile in her eyes. "But you've proven me wrong. Good job."

"How long was I out?"

"Just over 4 days."

"I was pretty busted up when I got back to the ship. Did you heal me?"

"Don't I always?"

Perhaps forgetting himself, the green Titan moved to Raven and gave her a hug. But not the friendly, 'pat their back to signal them to let go' type of hug - the type you give someone when you'd be fine to not let go for a long time. A flush crept to the empath's cheeks as she mutually embraced Gar. Eventually, no one will ever know how much later, he pulled back and sat on the bed. "Sit with me for a minute, would ya?"

Giving him a quizzical look, she joined her friend and faced him. "What did you need?"

"This whole 'end of the world' thing kinda reminded me of something," he started. "We could'a died, for real. This wasn't like fighting those lame-O 'villains' we usually put away in an hour," he licked his lips, looking a little unsure. "I'm... I'm really glad we didn't, though."

"You're glad we didn't die, eh? Well, we're definitely in agreement there. Any more late-breaking news to share?"

The green teen got blush stickers at this - obviously, he was trying to say something a little more profound than being happy to still be living. Anyone who knew Beast Boy could've ranked that a 9.7 on the 'Duh' Meter(TM).

"Actually, Rae, I need to tell you something a little more personal than that." He swallowed hard, his eyes locking on hers, emerald to amethyst. "I wanted to tell you that... I want to be more than just friends with you." He paused slightly, taking a deep breath to not stammer like a moron. The results still came out at roughly a mile a minute. "I want to date you. I want you to be my girlfriend - maybe wife, not sure yet and I'll totally need to save up for a ring. I'll totally stop dating psychotic geomancers if you'll stop dating narcissistic dragons."

As obvious as this should have been, given that they'd known each other for years and his puppy crush was evident to pretty much anyone who had a clue about feelings, apparently the script said Raven couldn't tell. So she was a little surprised, to say the least. "You know what 'narcissistic' means?"

"Uh, yeah. I've been reading more, on account of there's this really cute girl who, uh, I'm guessing stayed next to me the entire time I was out. That's... worth reading for." Apparently he was in no state to get subtle humor. A beat passed, and she said nothing. He got that message loud and clear.

"Okay, so, uh, if you're not into me, I get it," he stood up, feeling like kind more of an idiot than ever before. Seriously, what would a gorgeous girl like that with a million books, legs for days and probably a bajillion suitors ever see in a green shrimp... figuratively speaking... like him? Beast Boy scratched the back of his head and continued, "Um, yeah. Nevermind, I guess. See ya." Flashing a token smile and disappearing from the room before she really had a chance to respond, his most positive thought was 'at least she didn't throw me, send me to another dimension or make me break through her magic death-squeezes.' Beast Boy was off the ship in record time. And decided to get something to eat - at least food wouldn't reject him.

Making his way to the kitchen, Cyborg and Starfire were watching TV in the main room when he walked in. "Grass stain," the metal man called, with the alien zooming up to give Beast Boy a bone-crushing hug that he now knew how to fight off - if he'd had a moment to prepare. As such, both his friends greeted the changeling with as much friendly gusto as metahumanly possible.

"Hi... guys..." the strangled teen croaked out, considering morphing out of the embrace just for his own safety. Finally, the overzealous Tamaranean relented, and Beast Boy continued to the fridge to withdraw... whatever was available.

First, the green boy cleaned out the tofu stash. Then, he ate every available bit of salad material, including some tomatoes that looked about ready for the compost heap. Finally, seeing some of Cyborg's steaks, the changeling began to grill them up, salivating the entire time. The scent hit Cyborg, who became a little alarmed.

"What the hell are you doing with my meat, booger boy?!" Instantly the metal man was on his feet and on the charge. "I'm soooo hungry," the changeling replied. "I feel like I could eat the entire animal kingdom." At this, both the alien and the half-man's eyes went saucer-wide. "But... but you don't eat meat," Cy cried. "Eh, when ya get hungry enough you eat ANYTHING," Beast Boy replied without taking his eyes off the medium rare steaks he was removing from the grill surface.

Not a word was spoken in the kitchen area as the green titan devoured the steaks, fat and all. He even licked the plate, making sure to get every drop of the blood. "Oh yeah," he patted his stomach when he was finished. "Nothin' like a fresh kill... even if it's not that fresh." More stunned silence.

An hour or so later, the alarm sounded and the titans all gathered by the viewscreen. "It's the Hive Five, hitting the Treasury Building," Robin announced. "Nothin' to it. Business as usual," Cyborg quipped. "Yes, I cannot wait to 'kick the butt,'" Starfire quipped. "Titans, GO!"

A brief travel montage later, the heroes assembled before the building to see Mammoth standing guard. He called to his compatriots that company had arrived, and soon Seemore and Jinx were out and ready. With hexes flying and... extremely astute eyesight... the threat was backed up by Mammoth's giant fists slamming into the earth, with Robin dodging as acrobatically as always. Raven kept up the defense, blocking objects that Jinx's hexes lobbed at or dropped toward Cyborg and Starfire. Starfire kept pressure on Seemore, because at some point he might decide to unleash a non-lame ability that nobody would've suspected and totally turn the tide.

Not likely, but all things are possible.

Swelling his lungs as he never had before, Beast Boy shouted out for all to hear, "HEY!" Everyone actually paused for a moment to see what he wanted. "Did you people not see the news? We almost had the world destroyed, and *I* played a big part in not-destroying the world. Er, un-destroying it. Um... We're all ALIVE because of stopping Galactus! I don't need you to be grateful or anything, but you'd better give up RIGHT NOW." He punctuated this order with a pointed finger. "You get over here, lay on the ground right now or I am going to KICK. YOUR. FUCKING. ASSES!" Each of the last four words seemed to get louder until the final word thundered forth. The ground actually shook a little, and for a split second the bad guys (and gal) considered complying. Shrugging that off, Jinx replied, "Hey dumbass, it's 'lie on the ground.' Don't you good guy types ever go to school?!"

Beast Boy's eyes went wide. "I was home schooled," he muttered, muscles tensing. Instantly he took off at a dead sprint, morphing into a massive pteradactyl and flying straight at Jinx full-speed. She dodged easily with a rather unnecessary display of gymnastic prowess, not noticing the changeling morph into a gorilla behind her. Gripping her pink hair, the green titan slammed her into the ground hard enough to make a small crater... and again, and again... and again. Blood immediately started pooling beneath her.

Making his way rapidly to Seemore, Beast Boy pimp smacked him so hard the one-eyed boy flew into a wall. Pinning the helmeted villain to the ground by his neck, the green ape jammed a fist into his eye socket, pulling out a collection of flesh and technology. "Gaaaah," the cyclops shrieked. "I'm blind! I can't see! Noooo!"

"Welcome to being a freak, bitch," the changeling quipped. Morphing into a T-rex, he turned his attention to Mammoth... who was trying to run away. Yeah, like that was going to fly.

Charging toward the large man at a breezy 50 miles per hour, Beast Boy grabbing the brute in his teeth, hurling him into the air. Mammoth unleashed a scream of pure terror, and Beast Boy's massive-toothed mouth opened as if he was going to eat the villain. "Beast Boy, stop!" Robin called out, running toward the green dinosaur who seemed about to consume their obviously-defeated foe.

The changeling seemed to regain his composure at this, and let the large man hit the ground. Being extremely tough, the burly Hive member only seemed dazed by the impact. Morphing back to human form, Beast Boy shrugged. "One less villain, free food. Seems like an all-around win to me."

"What the hell is wrong with you," the Boy Wonder challenged, getting in Beast Boy's face and pointing a finger at his chest. "Heroes don't kill people, especially when there's no reason to. They are NON-VIOLENT criminals, and they need to be arrested for proper trial and incarceration."

"Yeah, to drive up our taxes and maybe get off on a technicality like they did last year," the changeling countered. "Oh, not to mention the fact that despite having some of the best prisons ever BUILT, these punks seem to get out about once a MONTH." Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Beast Boy awaited Robin's counter-argument. "Tell me why letting these people go on is some kind of 'noble' thing. Go ahead, gimme a good reason. Why should we put the public in danger from all these flying cars and make the city pay for MORE fire hydrants and light posts that get ripped out. Oh, and tell the insurance companies you'll pick up the tab for ALL of those cars they smashed. What was it, 15 or so this time? And that's just property damage! If ONE innocent person so much as gets a broken bone because of these assholes, I feel ZERO sympathy curb-stomping the lot of them!"

Somebody's got some hormones going on, everyone observed. But did that make him wrong?

Taking a deep breath and doing everything he could to keep his temper, Robin replied with forced calm, "We have the power to fight. We can kill, everybody knows that. We don't have to prove it. But that's the kind of thing people like Mallah or Slade would do. We wait until the bad guys strike, then we stop them. We hurt them only to the extent necessary to prevent more damage and more innocent people being harmed. Otherwise, we become the judge, the jury and the executioner... which is the kind of thing we just prevented, if you've forgotten."

"Oh, bullshit," Beast Boy spat back. "Galactus thinks he's God's gift to... godhood. Like he can kill endless billions of people and animals just for himself, because he's so goddamned special." Breathing deeply, the green teen tried to cool off a little and keep his thoughts straight. "If we kill a handful of people who've shown they won't ever stop on their own, maybe other criminals will realize crime doesn't pay. And they'll stop hurting the innocent. And just maybe they'll stop smashing things, stealing things, and just generally doing their anti-social bullshit. A few people who DESERVE it, to save a lot of people who deserve to live with some SAFETY. I say THAT'S our responsibility."

The Boy Wonder didn't seem swayed, but he was apparently impressed with Beast Boy's passion and logic. "Be that as it may, you've got no right to eat people. Hell, since when do you even eat meat," he defended a bit lamely.

"Okay, fine. I won't eat people. But if they happen to drop in battle and don't get back up, what's the harm?"


	6. Off the Rails

The debate had gone nowhere, with Beast Boy standing his ground and Robin standing his. Both fellows had a steadfast bond and a lot of respect for each other, and had thus stayed relatively civil. Part of that was helped by how the other titans had kept them apart. What they hadn't done was watch Gar after the group returned in their due time.

They ended up seeing it on the news, of all things. Cyborg was nonchalantly flipping channels when the remote dropped from his hand. Robin was in the kitchen, and felt the immediate change in the metal man's emotional energy before he heard the telltale voice of their teammate, clearly reading from something pre-prepared and rehearsed enough to sound semi-natural.

"... As these images show, I have the power now to turn into a planet-sized being. I used this to drag Galactus to the edge of the universe, where I gave him the choice to either leave earth alone or be destroyed - he chose the former." By now, Robin was watching enraptured and growing irritated. Beast Boy plus media generally doesn't equal good things for anyone.

The changeling beamed. "You're welcome." Definitely off-script, but whatever.

"We did help a little bit," Robin muttered through gritted teeth, hands gripping the couch cushions as his annoyance began to bubble upward into full-blown anger.

The green titan continued, "I'd like to state, once again, that I am speaking only on behalf of myself here, and that I want my message to be heard loud and clear. While I'm not a scientist, I do know that when you put one planet on top of another planet, it messes with the first planet's orbit. That means we'd either fly into the sun and get toasted, or we'd fly off into nowhere and freeze. Not that I'd turn into a planet and end all life on earth, or anything. But I totally could." The expression on his face was pure seriousness, and combined with his words and the fact that this is Beast Boy, the implications were terrifying. "Of course, that would be crazy. And I'm not crazy or anything."

"And frankly, I'm angry that the villains of the world keep committing crimes. I am prepared to do what only supervillains normally would, because I didn't save this world to see it hurt needlessly. So I have two promises for you. First, if I catch you committing a crime, I will kill you and eat your body - unless you're inedible, then I'll just kill ya. I was able to beat Galactus, and you're nowhere near as tough as he is. You've already lost, just give up while you still can. Second, if you commit crimes, I'll eventually catch you. From now on, crime in Jump City is about to start really not paying - unless you're me, in which case victory is gonna be sweet." He actually patted his stomach for emphasis. "Also, when I've taken care of all the crooks in Jump, I'm going to start going around the world and stopping crime altogether, one tasty criminal at a time. I may not be able to destroy crime totally, but I'll take a nice chunk out of it." He grinned, seeming innocent and completely happy with his gallows humor. "I want the citizens of the world to know, Beast Boy's got your back. And I want the bad guys to know, watch your back - you're about to get rump-roasted. Thank you, and have a pleasant evening."

A short time later, the rest of the titans had gathered together and Cyborg had replayed the footage he had. Robin had brought up the rest online, which had started off in a fairly pedestrian fashion. After the footage finished, Starfire was too shocked for words and even Raven's composure seemed in danger of slipping. The other male titans, having had more time to adjust, were sitting quietly in thought.

"Our friend has gone 'off the tracks,' as you say," Starfire sighed.

"Off the rails, and I completely agree with you. When he gets back, I am running every test I can think of on him," Cyborg reassured, trying to use reason to keep emotions in check. That had a habit of not working, but for a scientifically minded person it was a glimmer of hope.

"I can't believe he'd be this careless," Robin continued the thought. "Either there's something wrong with him, or there's something *wrong* with him," his clenched fist pushing painfully into his other palm.

"His emotional state has been... different since our trip into space," Raven confirmed dispassionately. No one else in the room caught the glimmer of worry in her voice, and she carefully shielded her outward expressions from revealing her feeling of guilt at contributing to this. 'I felt exactly what he was feeling, and I could have returned it. I could have said something, anything... but I froze,' she chided herself. 'Now he's cracked. And I'm part of the reason for it.'

"You can say that again. First he's eating meat, then he's trying to eat people, now he's going on TV grandstanding about it," Cyborg lamented. "What is happenin' to our boy?"

A beat passed, and the door opened as Beast Boy entered. "Hey, guys," he called out jovially. "How's it hangin'?" Moving to the kitchen, he came back with a fairly large assortment of food and began to dig in, seemingly oblivious to the silence the rest of the team was fairly showering him with.

"Beast Boy..." Robin began. "What's up," the green titan asked happily. "You had no right to hold a press conference without our input. You made us all look bad," the Boy Wonder fumed, taking pains to keep his tone civil. Cyborg cut in, "And what the hell is UP with you wanting to EAT people," exasperation dripping from him. Starfire continued slowly, "I understand hunger, and wanting to enforce justice, but combining the justice with the meal is wrong."

"I had a feeling there'd be some pushback, guys," the youngest titan smiled, speaking in between staccato bites. "But don't worry - I won't get you involved in this in any way. I'm not gonna put you in danger - that'd be a dick move." Blinking, the green changeling laughed. "No pun intended, Robin." How very meta.

"B, we ARE involved," Cyborg spoke gently. "I'm gonna be running tests on you until we figure out what's wrong, what's makin' ya act this way. We'll get to the bottom of this, don't worry."

"And you're off field duty until further notice," Robin announced sternly.

Beast Boy laughed as if both men had told him the funniest pair of jokes ever. "Guys, I'm glad you're concerned and all, but I feel great," he punctuated his statement by flexing his arm in the classic bodybuilder pose. "I've never felt better. In fact, that's why I'm going on this little mission of mine. See, I never had any confidence before, but when we went out there and saved the world I finally got some. Now that I know what I can do, I feel like I can really make a difference. I can spare the good people and punish the bad people. Wouldn't it be wrong not to do so?"

Hands held in front of her in an almost prayer position, Starfire spoke with a level of gentleness beyond even her norm. "We are all glad you are serious about the justice, but we do not approve of your methods."

"You need to stop this, right now, period," Raven quietly commanded

"I respect you guys' opinions. I really do," said the changeling. "But I just don't really need anybody's approval, including yours." The statement was matter-of-fact, and his smile had neither arrogance nor malice in it. "I'm gonna do the right thing, even if it's not the way you'd do it. And you're not gonna stop me, either."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, 'we're not gonna stop you'?" Robin stood up quickly enough to drop his chair, leaning over Beast Boy menacingly before it even hit the floor. "We're a team. We're your friends. You're dragging all of our names through the mud, and you're getting very close to the edge of being the kind of villain we have to take down." There was nothing implied about the challenge in Robin's eyes, voice or body language.

"I understand that, Robin," the green boy conceded. "I also understand that I don't want to hurt you or anybody else who fights the good fight. I mean, I don't want to use my ability to become one of the aliens from that database that eats metal and can degrade electronics," glancing at Cyborg, "or turn into a brain-eating amoeba that can cause paralysis," looking Robin in the mask, "... or that can shut down emotions in the brain," making brief but pointed eye contact at Starfire and Raven, shifting in the middle of his sentence so they could both feel equal. Because that's exactly how people want to feel equal. "Those things wouldn't be nice at all. No sir, especially after all the work it would take you to find me if I didn't want to be found. It just wouldn't be good at all, would it?"

Putting hands on hips, Robin looked ready to do some killing of his own... and held onto diplomacy for the time being. "So you've got it all planned out, is that it? You could take down just about anybody who gets in your way, and you think being a MURDERER and a CANNIBAL is going to make the world a better place?"

"Well, frankly, I don't -" Beast Boy's head hit the table with enough force to likely leave a bruise when he woke, Robin's instant-knockout syringe jammed into the green boy's neck. "Okay, Cy. You're off all other duties until you find out what's making him act this way." Cyborg nodded, ambivalence etched into his features, and tossed the changeling over his shoulder to carry back to the lab.

"Raven, see what you can find. If there's anything magical or otherworldly, we need it identified and handled immediately," the masked hero instructed the sorceress. With a slight nod, she stood and walked away, ostensibly toward her library.

"Will he be okay," the redhead looked up at her love and asked. With her trademark delicate lilt that could melt even the icebox in his chest, it was hard to give her anything but a positive answer. "We'll do everything in our power, Star. We WILL get to the bottom of this."


	7. Testing

Robin had put a large amount of tranquilizer into the needle, enough to knock out a rhino - but Beast Boy could turn into even larger creatures, making his metabolism beyond even Robin's estimates. As such, he had barely been strapped down into the medical bay's testing chair - a place he hadn't been since the Beast incident - when he began to come around.

"Ugh, how much did I have to drink," he questioned in the half-joking manner of a fellow who likes levity and alcohol in equal volume. Either that, Cyborg figured, or the green teen really did feel like a drunk - which was kind of a no-no for an under-aged superhero. Robin didn't need to know about that, the metal man observed.

By the time the tallest titan had considered this while he worked on readying his testing supplies, Beast Boy had come to enough to be aware of his surroundings. "Goin' by the look and smell of this place, I don't really wanna be here," stating the obvious. "Sorry, green bean," Cyborg replied, seeming genuinely penitent. "But until we know what's up with your drastic change of behavior lately, you might be a danger to somebody unless we can figure out what's different and fix it."

"I understand, Cy. You're just following orders." The changeling cracked his neck slightly and flexed his spine, which bent as easily as a cat's. The metal man shook his head, "No I'm not. Gar, you're a danger to every villain on the planet. And while a part of me wants to fist bump you for havin' that much gusto, the part that doesn't condone what they do also doesn't condone killing them. Or eating them," he admonished. "Robin didn't have to order shit outta me. I'd be doin' the same thing even if he'd been fine with the 'new and improved' grass stain."

"Come on, Cy. I'm still the same guy I've always been. Crackin' jokes, watchin' way too much TV, kickin' your ass around the living room at any game you can think of. The only thing that's changed is that I'm not afraid to do what's gotta be done. Let me be the token 'evil' teammate while you stay sluggin' as a squeaky-clean squad of super softies." Not bad alliteration at the end, but Cyborg was not impressed.

"Yeah, right. You beat me about 1/10th of the time, so you're obviously delusional," the metal man smirked. "And on top of that, your idea of justice is wrong. We don't kill unless there's absolutely no other choice. Slade, maybe - even though his death was a pretty convenient accident. Trigon, okay - but considering he was on the same threat level as Galactus, that's a single situation we can let slide. Those guys were big bads, and on rare occasions a big bad has to bite it. But when any one of us could probably take down the baddy, which is more than half the time, it's unnecessary. It's overkill, and it doesn't give people a chance to reform."

Beast Boy lost all his good humor at that. "Do you think Control Freak is going to reform? A guy like that may be a small potatoes fanboy today, but sooner or later he'll get it together and become a legit threat. You think that rapist Dr. Light is ever going to 'reform?' He may not be a planet-wide threat, but he's still a scum bucket who deserves whatever he gets. You think most of those criminals are going to do anything but get worse as they grow their skills and get more confident?"

Cyborg thought this over for a moment, and responded more calmly than the changeling. "Yeah, you're part right. If that bastard Light so much as thought about doin' something like that to Raven or Starfire," he blinked, "and they didn't break him in half on their own, I'd be right there with every cell and circuit in my body wanting to end his life." Perhaps that sentence could have come out more calmly. "But I'd keep it in check, and I'd make sure he lived long enough to have his day in court and smile when those jail cell doors slammed shut. You know how they treat those kinda guys on the inside."

Beast Boy nodded, understanding. "So you're saying that I should let the system handle them, eh?"

"Oh, yeah. And ya know what else I'm sayin'? I'm sayin' that even if 99 out of a hundred of those criminals will keep being scum for the rest of their lives, the ones who do reform become legit heroes and do a lot of good to try and make up for their crimes. Hell, not to harp on Dr. Light, but ya know some of his designs went into the most recent draft of my projection display. There's no such thing as pure, useless evil, Gar."

"You've got a point, Cy," the changeling agreed. "But ya know what? The system's busted. We put these people in jail, and they hire a slick lawyer to get them off on a technicality. They get put away for a 20-year sentence, and they're out in 5 years because it's expensive as hell to hold them. And that's assuming they haven't broken out like they seem to every month or two."

"I agree, the system's messed up. But that doesn't give us the right to kill 'em."

"And what about when we had the chance to finish off a crook, and a few months later they kill someone else." He licked his lips to moisten them. "What does that make us? Where does that leave real justice? What do we tell the families of the people they kill? It's not right for us to kill, you're right - but when I kill one killer, I might be saving a dozen innocent people, or a hundred. Or a thousand!" The changeling's muscles were tensed against his restraints, wanting to gesture and getting fired up. "Tell me which one's better, Vic. Killing one person who does crimes again and again and again, endangering innocent lives and hurting people, or letting these same scumbags rape people, maim people and kill people over and over again? Should we just fold our hands and say 'oh well, the law's the law, and I can't kill?' Or do we keep doing what we already do, only taking it to the next level and solving the problem once and for all?"

The door opened, the rest of the team entering. "Because we're not murderers and we can't be, or we'd forfeit most of our moral edge," Robin countered.

"Oh get real, Dick," Beast Boy sighed. "We're basically just popular vigilantes. We're good-looking, we wear slick costumes and we stop criminals." Robin chose not to argue this on semantics, to hear out the changeling. "Why don't we put it to a popular vote? Let the people decide."

"Right. Swipe left for Beast Boy to eat criminals, swipe right for him not to," Raven quipped. "We've taken a vote, Garfield, and we disapprove. The debate lasted about half a second." The green boy listened intently to the empath, his emerald eyes locked on hers and an affectionate, saddened look passed from him.

"Friend Beast Boy, the killing is wrong and we cannot support it. Titans do not kill except under the most dire of circumstances," Starfire confirmed. "Do you not see our point?"

"I see your point, Kori," the changeling answered, lowering his eyes and sighing yet again. "You don't want the team's reputation getting sullied by me going freelance, and you consider killing wrong. And you won't even put it up to a public vote to hear out my opinion. I bet you've already issued a statement to the press that I'm under the effects of some weird MacGuffin that's made me cray cray, right?" Robin nodded.

The changeling gritted his teeth. "Fine. I think you're making a mistake keeping me on this pacifist style of yours, but if it's unanimous..." he took a deep breath, "I'll do it. You want me to let crooks go with nothing worse than a KO, fine. I won't even break their bones if you don't want. And I won't bite hard enough to remove any chunks. But I'm just gonna say this one time..."

The changeling made eye contact with each member of the team, his gaze laced with steel. "Every time an innocent person gets killed or seriously hurt after I've let a crook go so 'the system' can jack 'em off, every time there's ten million bucks of property damage because we had to fight the same person for the umpteenth time, I'm not gonna make it a secret that I don't see this the way you do. Your views aren't mine." Another sigh. "But I'll respect 'em."

Robin seemed genuinely surprised by Beast Boy's capitulation. He was even more surprised when Gar continued, "And I'm really... sorry I went to the press and made that little speech without so much as talking to you guys about it." Pointed eye contact at Robin. "But since I'm not gonna make a big deal about how you knocked me out like some kind of escaped zoo animal, I hope you can let this slide. I'll even make a new statement if you want."

"I did what I thought was right," Robin spoke with crossed arms, about as close to an apology as he'd give. Starfire beamed at the apparent agreement within the group. "This is glorious! Friend Garfield has done the 'coming around!' Perhaps he is better?"

"Probably not, Star," the changeling said. "The second-best detective in the world, the man who can run every scientific test there is and the woman who can sense feelings from a mile away aren't convinced I'm not just lyin' to get out of this." His head tilted, exasperation obvious. "I feel fine. I feel clear, like I've got purpose like I never did before, and the ability to really do something for the world. But I guess it's not up to me." A level of bitterness the other titans had never heard from the changeling wafted from his voice.

"I trust your word, Beast Boy," Raven spoke up. "If you say you'll respect our wishes and our methods, I believe you." Walking up to him, she placed her hand on the changeling's shoulder, a very affectionate gesture by Raven standard. Beast Boy's eyes opened wider before his face settled into a huge grin. "Thanks, Rae," he answered, looking up at the gorgeous girl standing near him, eventually turning his attentions to Cyborg. "So, we gonna test me for whatever, or am I gonna be in 'time out' all day?"

Later that afternoon, a long series of tests later

Cyborg seemed puzzled by the results. He puzzled until it looked like his puzzler was going to get sore, and it was making Beast Boy irritated. Why couldn't they just get this done already? The changeling was tired from all the tests, and on top of that he had gotten extremely hungry. "Can we take a break, Cy," the green teen implored. "I'm hungry, I'm tired and my butt's been asleep so long it's snoring."

"Yeah," Cyborg relented. "Your readings are mostly normal. There doesn't seem to be anything dangerous goin' on here. But I'm gonna get Robin's okay before I turn ya loose." A few minutes later, Robin arrived, knowing he was needed because he's just that good. Or because Cyborg called him, one of the two.

"What's the status," the Boy Wonder asked. "Well, that's how ya make a guy feel like a person," Beast Boy lamented, irritation carved into his features and steam lines rising from him like some kind of cartoon character. "The green bean's fine, as far as I can tell," Cyborg replied. "His neurology is mostly unchanged, with the main difference being that his mitochondria are extra hyped - energy production off the charts. That explains his extreme hunger."

"What about his murderous impulses?" "Pff, you're one to talk about that," the green boy rolled his eyes. "Mr. Intensity himself wants to trash talk how I'm too violent." "Intensity has to be controlled, Beast Boy," Robin turned to the green titan. "If we don't keep it under control and act professional, it's way too easy to turn into the same kind of people we're supposed to fight against."

"Blah blah blah, we have to be nice for the news, bad guys need to be handled with kid gloves. I fucking get it, Robin," irritation pouring from the shape shifter's voice. Robin ignored the comment, letting his teammate vent. "You can let him go, Cyborg. I'm going to trust his word - for now."

"It might take me awhile to get his cells back to normal, but otherwise he just seems jacked on our recent victories and over-zealous." Checking his words carefully, Cyborg continued, "But the whole eating people thing, really not cool." With no discernible movement from the metal titan, Beast Boy's bonds released him.

"Ya know, I've had two mothers," the changeling began. "Now I feel like I've got at least two more."


	8. Hearts and Mirrors

The following weeks saw a quiet tension creep into the Tower. No one said anything about it, because frankly they were concerned about setting off the changeling. At this point, Beast Boy's powers seemed to have grown considerably - as had his willingness to use them. While Robin had countermeasures that could stop any of the technically super-powered titans (and could break Starfire's powers just by showing disapproval in her), no one really wanted a fight.

The alarm went off one day, and the team raced to the perpetual battlefield that was any given street in Jump City. Gizmo had split off from the Hive after their crushing defeat a few weeks prior, and was leading a team of no-name robbers making off with crates of diamonds. Figuring he could hold off the titans on his own, the small teen held aloft by his jet pack was acting as lookout from roughly three stories up. Spotting the titans, he moved into position and hurried his boys along.

"Why don't you pit-lickers get lost," he spat at the heroes. "This is a no-loser zone." "You'd better brush up on your phonics, buddy," Robin returned. "That's no loading zone. I hear they've got a great remedial reading program in the local prison. You'll have plenty of time to sample it." The titans readied themselves for a fight, and the robbers began pulling their automatic weapons as Gizmo began pushing buttons on his integrated control panel.

Beast Boy nonchalantly stepped forward. "Robin, Cyborg, ladies, I've got this," he spoke, striding as easily as Sunday morning toward the bad guys. The hunger in his eyes was palpable, and drool leaked from his mouth as he licked his lips like a man who hadn't seen food in months who suddenly happened upon a buffet. Gizmo took one second too long readying his distance weapon, and Gar was upon him.

A tap on Gizmo's shoulder and a glance up at the green teen made him shriek in terror and throw up his hands, weaponry forgotten. "I-give-up-I-give-up-I-give-up, please don't eat me!" Beast Boy grabbed the small man's shirt, brought him close up and whispered something in his ear that is lost to history. Bodily turning the pint-sized villain toward his associates, Beast Boy shook him slightly until he called out, "Drop your weapons, guys! We're giving up, right now!"

After the police came and the reports were filed, Robin turned to his green teammate and asked what he'd said to get such a quick, non-violent victory. "Simple, Rob," the changeling shrugged. "I told him my favorite recipe for shrimp, then I did that slurpy-hissy thing Hannibal did in that movie where he bit those guys' faces off, and it was all pretty easy after that. Funny what having a reputation does for ya." Blinking, Robin chuckled and wondered what Batman would say when the Boy Wonder told him the story.

Other than during missions and training, however, the changeling kept to himself. He prepared his meals himself, cleaned up after himself, did his requisite dish detail, all in silence and separate from the rest of the team. When it was his turn to cook, he was the quietest waiter ever as he carefully listened to his teammates' culinary desires. While he was always polite, there was a certain coldness that characterized his interactions with the other titans. In short, he seemed the consummate professional... or one of those sociopaths whose neighbors unfailingly say they were, "So quiet. We never heard anything out of him." Old interests like TV and video games were forgotten immediately and totally, and Beast Boy spent the majority of his time in his room, on the roof of the tower or... elsewhere.

Raven observed that with only Robin to play against, Cyborg played less video games. With Beast Boy generally in his room or on the roof, the TV in the common room was on roughly half as much. Further, virtually no pranks were played over nearly a month's duration - some kind of record, for sure. Raven was actually starting to miss even his most annoying traits, as her ability to suppress her feelings for the green teen began to falter. At least a few times per day, she fought the urge to knock on his door. Finally, she started to actually worry about him.

Beast Boy heard a knock on his door. Hoping they would go away and noting that the heart beat outside was consistent with Raven, he figured it was just an attempt to bait him out. He sat on his bed, trying to meditate and hoping it would eventually start to work.

Another short burst of knocks, a bit louder this time. 'Focus on breathing, Gar,' he told himself, keeping centered and blanking his mind - which wasn't as easy as the others would expect. There was a certain similarity between having a complete interplanetary zoo inside oneself and having ADHD, and most people simply didn't appreciate that. But whatever, Gar was working to escape the need to be appreciated.

A further series of knocks set his concentration on its head. 'This chick is just not going away,' he shook his head. 'I finally get it. It's really annoying. I'll just get whatever it is out of the way, and we can get back to our lives.'

Raven was beginning to grow impatient. Why would he keep her waiting? She could sense conscious emotions from him, so he wasn't asleep or dead. Immediately she recoiled from thinking like that - why would he be dead? 'Because I rejected him without saying anything the least bit conciliatory and have subsequently ignored his very existence for almost a month,' Knowledge answered. 'Rhetorical question,' the empath chided her emotion just as the door opened slightly.

"Raven," he nodded, his face almost as neutral as hers. Only the glimmer in his eyes reminded her of the mischievous, kindly person that made her heart flutter, and flutter it did. "What can I do for ya?"

"Beast Boy..." she began, suddenly stilted. She hadn't realized how much she missed him, and the way he was de facto playing hard-to-get hadn't helped the matter at all. "That's my name," he grinned. "If ya wear it out, I'll make ya buy me a new one." He was almost cute enough to make that funny even though it was corny as all get-out. The grin didn't quite reach his eyes, though, and she found that somewhat worrying.

"Can I come in," she asked. He blinked at this, almost dropping the grin. "Sure," he opened the door the rest of the way, getting out of her way and gesturing inside. Immediately upon entering, she noticed two things: firstly, that the room was fairly clean. Not spotless, not quite fit for the cover of Better Homes and Bachelor Pads, but nowhere near the biohazard it had been for the duration of her recollection. Clothes were in the hamper, there were no foodstuffs around and the scent was neutral and aired-out.

The second thing the gray-skinned teen noted walking in was that there was little to customize the place. Beast Boy had always been a poster junkie, but there were none to be seen. The mirror was also gone, as if it'd been... smashed. Turning to face him, she started slowly, careful to keep her monotone. "I've been thinking about what you said, about wanting to date me. I think-"

"It's okay, Rae," he broke in, hands up in a conciliatory fashion. "You don't need to gimme the whole 'you're a nice guy, but we should just be friends' speech. I've heard it from Terra and half the girls the fan fiction writers like to pair me up with, and frankly I don't need to hear it again. I won't bug ya with my little crush anymore."

"Let me finish, Gar," she scolded. His face went quizzical, but his silence and open body language gave her ample room to speak. "I... miss you. And I realized when you were fighting Galactus, when I almost lost you..." she walked close to him, unsure how to proceed but gazing into his eyes with clear intent to do so. "... that I don't want to lose you. Ever. And not just because we're good friends. I miss your laugh, your ridiculous jokes, which are sometimes actually funny, I miss the way you encourage me to open up-"

"The way I can take repeated blows from the wall?" His expression was light, but it was clear he didn't appreciate that. "You deserved it half the time," she countered, feeling like he was being combative for no reason in the wake of her unprecedented string of compliments. "Ya know, Rae, if I did that kind of thing to you I'd be an abusive asshole and people would hate me," he came back. "You could beat the crap out of me, but if I fought back physically," his fists clenched slightly and his face tensed, "That'd be just about the worst thing since making a public announcement that I was literally gonna take a bite outta crime." He blanked his expression, opening his hands and turning away. "But apparently, me taking endless hits for the capital crime of saying things you don't like is just iron butt monkey material. Maybe iron woobie, it's open to interpretation." Beast Boy's head rocked slightly on his neck as he shrugged, thinking aloud about things that obviously bothered him.

"I was trying to correct your behavior," she returned. "I want you to be the kind of person I know you can be - compassionate and sweet, just without the annoying traits." "Like being sweet and compassionate when you want to be left alone," he retorted, still giving her a sideways glance. "In other words, the things you like about me are the same things you don't like about me. A guy could go a little nuts thinkin' about that too much," and the way he emphasized the word 'nuts' was none too comforting to the cambion.

"Beast Boy... Gar," she started, moving toward him again and using her most soothing voice. "I'm sorry about that. I'm trying to apologize here. Are you going to let me?" He paused, looking pointedly into her eyes - all but through her. "Apology accepted, Rae. Now, what's the punch line?" The pressure was starting to make her nervous

She blinked, her brow crinkling in confusion. "Oh, come, on," he continued. "Cyborg or Robin sent you in here as a little joke, and they're listening in somewhere - maybe through the microphone they thought I hadn't found planted in here forever ago," he rolled his eyes. Doing a falsetto, he continued, "Oh Beast Boy, you are my one and only. We're the one true pairing, and nothing can keep us apart!" He batted his eyes for emphasis. "Well, it's not funny, Raven. You don't go from totally ignoring a guy proclaiming his affections for you to suddenly fawning all over him. It doesn't work like that, not in the real world. Not for me, in particular."

This made her mad. "You think I'm joking?!" Her eyes went red, an action that set most people retreating in fear but that Beast Boy only put hands on his hips over. "Was I not being obvious enough about it," he shouted right back, getting in her face and extending his arms outward to the sides in pinnacle frustration as he yelled straight at her from half an inch away. "Don't give me your 'I'm a half demon and I can kick your ass' bullshit, Raven! I'm sick of it! And I'm sick of being pushed around, by you or anybody else! You want a piece of me, you've got the whole damn thing right here! But if you so much as flick me with that dark energy of yours, you'd better kill me immediately. 'Cause if you don't..." he trailed off, his face falling, issuing a barely-audible, "I'll wish you had." That was an unusual way to end that particular kind of sentence.

"What is wrong with you," she asked, surprised enough that her anger began to fade. Raven's eyes returned to their normal coloring, amethyst and sensitivity returning to them in equal measure. She took a step toward him, noticing that his flash of anger was nothing but a veneer. "What's really wrong, Gar?"

"I'm head-over-heels for a girl who couldn't possibly, uh, that thing where she loves me back," he stumbled, still too emotional to think. "Reciprocate," she offered. "Yeah, I don't think you can do that. Part of me wants to kiss you, but another part thinks that'll just get me hit again and doesn't wanna bother. A third part just wants to hop out the window and disappear for awhile. And a fourth part just wants to break shit," he half-babbled, barely paying attention to her and bracing for whatever attack she saw fit to launch. He flinched violently as her hand gently touched his face, only relaxing several seconds later when he noticed that it didn't hurt.

"Garfield, look at me," she whispered, surprising herself as much as him. Raven wasn't the nurturing type, but love gives people a whole different kind of super powers. Almost grudgingly he did, and the pain in his eyes was extreme. "I'm not what you want, Rae," he whispered back. "That's why you hesitated. You might be a fan of broccoli, but nobody dates broccoli." "That's where you're wrong," she answered, pulling close to him so their bodies were close enough to feel one another's warmth. "Were you telling the truth about loving me?"

"You know what I'm feeling. Do you have to rub it in?" He still wasn't convinced. Talk about a tough audience. "Maybe we should with a kiss. That's how this romantic stuff usually goes. Rubbing... might be on the table." Shrugging, he moved in close, planting a light kiss on her lips. As they met, the energy passing between them was shocking. While Beast Boy had kissed a lot of girls, it had never felt like this - like he was becoming one with her, like his entire life he'd been incomplete and he was suddenly whole. Raven, who'd never kissed anyone at all as a result of being raised by monks and cultivating a creepy vibe, suddenly felt like she'd missed out on a lot of tremendous experiences.

Who knows how long they kissed. It was still evening, so probably less than 12 hours. But they weren't paying attention to clock time at this point. "Okay, so you weren't kidding," he finally relented. "Not a chance in hell," she uttered, gazing up at him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you that the feeling's mutual, Gar." "Yeah, so am I," he replied. "We could've been doing this a long time ago." "We've still got plenty of time," she admonished. "Time's funny when I'm holding you. It's like, everything's super slow and super fast at the same time. It's kinda scary, but I can't remember ever feeling safer."

"If I didn't know better, I'd almost think you were having a moment of profound insight."

"Maybe. This moment would be perfect if I didn't have to piss right now."

"Shut up, Garfield."

The End


End file.
